Yup it’s true, a can of Pringles Potato Chips can help you paint better and save some bothersome clean-up time as well (plus they are tasty to boot)! Let’s take a closer look and see how it works.I really don’t have a lot of time to paint, and I suspect the same is true for a lot of you out there as well. So over the past year or so I’ve tried to shift the focus of the Spikey Bits blog from super amazing yet time intensive tutorials to more attainable methods and projects.

I started with the Cheap ‘N Easyseries that featured good alternatives for a lot of the pricey bits and kits out there on the market. I also came up with the Hobby Basics Series, as a sort of collection of tips and tricks for beginners and veterans alike.

Today I am starting a new series called Hobby Secret Tech, which will go over uses for things not really associated with the hobby, yet produce great results nonetheless.

Which brings us full circle back to tasty Pringles chips. A while ago Meekershowed me a strange use for the little plastic tops that cover the metal can of chips, apparently they make great paint palettes.

Of course I didn’t believe him cause well it’s in our nature to doubt what we do not understand I guess… So the other day I was painting on my titan and tried it… and he was right. These things are pretty amazing to use.

The lid itself ends up being slightly concave, meaning it bows slightly inward, making a great “recess on demand” to hold paint. Which also tends to keep the paint from drying out slightly longer as well, which is nice for long painting sessions.

This new palette is big enough to hold a bunch of different colors of paint too before you have to clean it off- which is where this little guy becomes quite an asset.

Have you even tried to clean paint off one of those hard plastic palettes? It pretty much sucks, to be honest, because no matter how hard I scrub or scrape, it always seems to end up being a total waste of time.

Enter Mr Pringles and his amazing flexible plastic lid!

All you have to do to clean this puppy off, is just scrape lightly with your finger, and the paint literally peels right off. Now all that is left behind here is some stubborn wash “stains” and a few heavy specks of paint (see above).

After a trip to the sink and a quick swish with some dish soap and a paper towel, the palette is magically clean again! Best part is that took literally less than a minute total to do, which to me is pretty good considering all the time I’ve spend in the past cleaning those other palettes.

Now I’ll admit I let it get this caked with paint on purpose just to give it a test drive, so normally it should be even easier to clean off, I would imagine.

Best part is: all you have to do to get one, is spend like $2 at the grocery store, and it comes complete with a snack as well. Win, win, in my book!

Another good benefit of getting a can of Pringles is that you can turn the can upside down and use it to prime miniatures as well.

The bottom is actually some sort of metal as well, so until they change the container to save money you can flip it over, and use it to hold magnetized bases for priming / airbrushing figures too! Heck even if they are not magnetized, just use some double sided tape to securely fasten them and paint away. You can even used the containers for terrain as well.

Well that’s it for now but I’ve got a ton more of these to write up, as I seem to always be trying new things here and there. I even just heard Dr. Pepper is good to use for rinsing resin minis. I haven’t tried it yet, so no idea if it works or not but I will certainly let you know if it does.

What do you think of this “tech” tip? Every tried something non-hobby related, that ended up being amazing to use? -MBG